BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday assured a delegation of the Federation of Wine Merchants’ Association that he would take a decision on cutting down the proposed liquor licence fee in a week’s time.
According to sources, the government is unlikely to slash the licence fee drastically, from the proposed 100 per cent hike.
While the current fee was revised in 2016-2017, the proposal now is to hike it by 100 per cent, according to a notification issued on May 15. The renewal of licences of retail liquor shops in cities with more than 20 lakh population has been hiked to Rs 12 lakh per annum, from the existing Rs 8.5 lakh, and those in smaller towns is in the Rs 8-10 lakh range.
Similarly, renewal of licences for clubs serving alcohol has been revised in the range of Rs 4 lakh to Rs 13 lakh. The government, which was collecting about Rs 700 crore annually, has a plan to collect about Rs 1,400 crore by hiking the fees.
A hike of 100 per cent has never happened earlier, the delegation told the CM, and requested him to consider cancelling the notification and considering a hike of 20 per cent. It also sought a hike in commission in sale of liquor in retail shops, from the present 10 per cent to 20 per cent.
Liquor licences were increased from 9,224 in 2016-17 to 12,160 in 2024-25, which means 2,936 more licences in nine years, but the sale of liquor, including beer, has not increased, they pointed out.
The government collected Rs 591.33 crore from licence fees in 2016-17, and Rs 820 crore in 2024-25. They said that like excise duty, licence fees should not be considered as excise revenue for the state as it was just a permit to run the business. “We are giving a memorandum, including brewery owners’ association, as suggested by the CM, and expect that licence fees would be slashed,” said federation members Guruswamy and Govindaraj Hedge, who led the delegation.
“They have requested a reduction in licence fee, duty on molasses and fulfilment of other demands. Their demands will be discussed and reviewed with the Excise and Finance departments,” Siddaramaiah said.
Excise Minister RB Thimmapura, Chief Minister’s Political Secretary Govindaraju, Chief Secretary Dr Shalini Rajneesh, Additional Chief Secretary LK Atheik and other top officials of the Finance department were present.